


Falling Season

by GremlinGirl



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Fall Decor, Family Drama, Huxloween Day One, Kylo wears a dress and if you don't like this i don't care, M/M, Organa Family Drama, The Parents Come For Dinner, There Is No Logic To Be Found Here, Unspoken Family History, Witch!Kylo, Witch!Leia, Witchcraft, there is one decor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-02
Updated: 2018-10-02
Packaged: 2019-07-23 14:10:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16160507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GremlinGirl/pseuds/GremlinGirl
Summary: Kylo welcomes his parents for dinner, but he's got something to tell them. A family history would reveal a lot, but Leia finds his interests without merit. It's the first day of October, and Kylo is reconnecting with the meaning of the season.





	Falling Season

“You’re such a pretty boy aren’t you?” 

 

Kylo turned to the sound of the voice, and he smiled when Hux gave him a wave from the doorway, leaning there with his coat slung over one shoulder. Shifting, Kylo looked down at the new dress he wore: a black number that fell to his knees with orange and red leaves dancing along the hem. Whenever he turned, the dress would swing about his legs as if the leaves were dancing in the wind itself. He tugged the long sleeves a bit, then smiled. “Thanks. Just a cute thing I picked up from the store earlier.” 

 

“Yeah.” Hux tended to just agree with him, whenever he said something about clothes. Or makeup. Or, really, anything of that nature. Kylo didn’t mind. He knew Hux didn’t get it, but at least he was supportive. 

 

“I was actually wondering if you could help me,” Kylo said, walking over quickly. He was barefoot still, padding along their hardwood floors and over to his boyfriend, and he pulled him quickly into the dining room. “I need you to get up on a ladder for me.” 

 

“What, are you afraid of heights?” Hux asked, a smirk on his face, and Kylo gave him a withering look over his shoulder. 

 

“No, but I’d rather you just did it, because I’ve got to get my mother’s bowl down and I need two sets of hands.” 

 

The large bowl was a staple of the fall season, a black and red bowl with obscure patterns and symbols etched into the glass, with high sides and completely opaque, they put it out every single year on the first of October. It had been in the Organa family for as long as his mother knew, and it was continuously passed from generation to generation. Traditionally, it would go to the oldest girl in the family, but Rey hadn’t wanted it. And Kylo had always loved it. When he’d been a child, having his mother set it out on the table had always just set the mood for the season. He’d pretended it was a cauldron for spellcasting, whenever she hadn’t been in the room. Honestly, she’d always hated his fascination with it. Despite its other uses, his mother just filled it with apples, or candies when closer to the Halloween, and Kylo continued that tradition in his own home. 

 

“Ah, alright,” Hux said, only somewhat familiar with the bowl. He’d certainly seen it out in Kylo’s apartment before, but this was the first year they lived together. He grabbed the stepladder from the storage room and set it up in front of the cupboards. The bowl was in the very top, and he had to shift over some scarcely used fancy dinner plates in order to get at it. 

 

Heavy, Hux was careful when he took it into his arms, and Kylo winced when he heard him grunt softly in effort. The bowl was safely passed down to him, though, and Kylo quickly took it over to the counter to set it down. He immediately set to cleaning it out, and smiled when Hux came up behind him, pressing a kiss to the nape of his neck, after sweeping his long hair out of the way. 

 

“Thank you,” he said, turning his head and receiving a real kiss. “I’ve got a whole bunch of apples to put in the bowl, and we’ll use it as the centerpiece for dinner tonight.” 

 

“Hmm. What time are your parents getting here again?” 

 

“Just after seven,” Kylo replied easily, then turned to dampen a rag in the sink. It wasn’t like he could put a hundred year old, antique bowl through the dishwasher after all. “If you want to go ahead and preheat the oven, then I can put the casserole in. It’s already made, setting in the fridge.” 

 

“Okay.” Hux went to work, helping out a little, while Kylo carefully and reverently cleaned out the bowl. He made sure every line and divet was thoroughly cleaned before he took it to the table and settled it in the center. Piling apples into the bowl, he could hear Hux opening up the oven to slide the casserole inside. 

 

“Thank you, love!” Kylo called out. “Put the time on for an hour.” Stepping back, he admired the work, then hurried back into the kitchen to check on the rest of the food. Hux caught him around the waist when he tried to slip by, turning him around and planting a kiss on his lips. “You’re very dashing and romantic, but I need to finish dinner,” Kylo said, wriggling away. 

 

“You always get like this when your parents come over,” Hux said. “They love you, Kylo. I don’t know why you have to make such a scene about it. You don’t have to try and impress them.”    
  


“I...I know that.” He shrugged, going over to pull out the pie tins from the fridge to make sure the cheesecake had set right the night before. He’d need to cover them in the chocolate mouse soon and put them back in. 

 

“Do you? Then why are you running around as if your life depended on this. You could serve them chicken nuggets and they’d still love you.” 

 

Kylo rolled his eyes. “I’m not serving my parents chicken nuggets.” 

 

“Fine, then at least tell me what I can do…” 

 

Kylo paused, then chewed on his bottom lip. “Can you shell the peas and get them on to cook?” he asked, and Hux nodded. “They’re in the fridge,” Kylo said, pointing, then he turned back to work on the pie. 

 

Working in the kitchen with Hux was easy, and they fell into a natural rhythm around each other. They clicked, and it worked, and Kylo didn’t even mind when Hux got sidetracked by grabbing at his hips or kissing him on the neck. Eventually, they had the full meal spread across the table, with all the dinner plates and silverware laid out. Kylo sat down with a sigh, looking down at his feet. “I’ve got to go fight my way into a pair of heels now,” he said, defeated and whiney. 

 

“Or, you could wear loafers like a normal person,” Hux said, sitting down near the window and lighting up a cigarette. Kylo gave him a judgemental look, only receiving a smile in response. “I’m blowing the smoke out the window, okay? Chill out.” 

 

Kylo looked back down. “Maybe I’ll just wear flats. But that seems a bit...juvenile, doesn’t it? I mean, if I’m not going to complete the look, maybe I should just change into a pair of slacks and a button up. Like you.” 

 

“Honey, just wear whatever you’re comfortable in, okay?” 

 

Kylo could tell Hux’s patience was wearing a bit thin, and there was only a few minutes until his parents were set to arrive. Hux would need to finish his cigarette and Kylo had to go put on shoes, no matter what. Getting up, he padded back to their bedroom and went into the walk-in closet. Dragging out a pair of short pumps and thigh-highs, Kylo sat down. He pulled the tights over his legs, securing them, then he slipped the shoes on his feet. Hux was right about one thing; he should wear what he felt comfortable in. And he’d always felt more comfortable in a dress. 

 

Just as he was finishing this up, he heard a knock on the door, and he made a mad dash down the hallway, heels clicking up a storm. At the door, he found his parents waiting for him. His mother was wrapped up in a winter coat, even though it couldn’t be below sixty degrees, and his dad looked out of place in a tie. “Come in,” he said, ushering them inside and moving out of the way. He took his mom’s coat and put it up, before letting her guide him in for a hug, in which he had to bend over a bit. 

 

“Something smells nice,” she said, then gently tapped his cheek. “And I love the dress, is it new? Where’s that boyfriend of yours?” 

 

Kylo gestured toward the living room. “I’m sure he’s trying to hurriedly ventilate the living room so it doesn’t smell too much like nicotine,” he said, rolling his eyes. His mom laughed. 

 

“Yes, Han does the same, then pretends I don’t know that he hasn’t given up his habit, yet.” 

 

“What do you mean?” Han asked, gruffly. He always spoke gruffly, though, so that wasn’t anything unusual. Kylo gave him a smile, then started moving toward the kitchen. 

 

“Let’s just go sit down, hmm?” he asked, not wanting them to start an argument there in the entryway. He heard his dad shut the door, and Kylo walked forward and into the dining room, just in time to see Hux ducking in from the living room. 

 

“Mrs. Organa,” he said, amicable, then walked over to give her a careful hug. Leia responded to it, of course, then she smiled when Hux pulled out a seat for her. “It’s been too long. You really should come over more often.” He circled around the table to Kylo’s side, where his boyfriend was nervously gripping the back of his seat. 

 

“Well, I’m not retired yet, Armitage. Unfortunately, I don’t have the free time that I would like.” 

 

“Well, I think we can all understand that, right Kylo?” 

 

Kylo nodded, then sat down. His dad was the last to take a seat, after Hux, and Kylo reached out to spoon some casserole onto each plate, happy to serve everybody. “It’s chicken,” he said, even though it was pretty clear what was in it. “And we have some peas to go with it, as well as bread rolls. I didn’t make the rolls from scratch, though. I didn’t have time.” 

 

“Kylo, who has time to make bread? You’re not a housewife in fifties America,” his mother said, then laughed. “Stop acting like it, okay?” 

 

“Right,” he said, then glanced to his dad out of the corner of his eye. The man was already eating, really without waiting on anyone else. “And we have apples and some chocolate mousse cheesecake. But the cheesecake is still in the fridge so it stays nice and chilly until we’re ready to eat it.” 

 

“Well, then let’s dig in,” Hux said, smiling over at Kylo knowingly. And everyone did. 

 

Dinner was an exceedingly awkward affair, but it always was. Kylo tried to talk about work, about life in general, he asked about Rey, and he got minimal answers from his father, and, well, Mom was a bit stiff as well. He knew that this was just how they were with each other, and they had been ever since he was a teenager. 

 

When Kylo went to get the pie, he paused in the kitchen for a moment just to stare at the floor. Everything always felt exceedingly difficult, for the dumbest reasons. He hated that it was so hard to just talk to his parents like human beings. He hated that they made it so hard. He hated that he’d been the one to burn the bridge in the first place. 

 

Hux came into the kitchen after a second, pulling down wine glasses as well as a bottle of chardonnay. He didn’t say anything at first, and Kylo merely went to the fridge to get the pie out. 

 

“I figured a little wine with dessert, but this is all we have,” he said, smiling slightly. “Do you want a drink?” 

 

“Sure,” Kylo replied, pulling the top of the tin and scraping away any excess crumbs so the pie had a good presentation. 

 

“It’s not going too well?” Hux asked. 

 

“Does it ever?” 

 

“You know...I know that it isn’t my place to say, because I don’t really get the...tension between you and them. But I know that you try hard, every time, every year. It’s hard to watch. Your dad is one of the most unfriendly bastards I’ve ever met, and that’s coming from me. I mean, can you imagine?” 

 

“They’re not bad,” Kylo said, feeling like he had to defend them. 

 

“I know. The way you talk sometimes, I know you love them. But, trying this hard, it’s...well, maybe it’s not what you need. Maybe, maybe you need to be more honest about yourself.” 

 

“What? I’m being honest about myself. I’m being as honest as any person can be!” 

 

“Sure, I just mean…” Hux leaned over, bracing a hand on the small of Kylo’s back. “I think you need to tell them the truth, all of it, and maybe that’ll make them understand a bit better… I mean, maybe...maybe they’ll understand?” 

 

“No, they won’t. They hardly understand why I’m dating you!” Kylo winced, then lowered his voice. “I just...I don’t want to go out there and ruin a nice dinner by dredging up all of that. It’s...mostly in the past anyway.” 

 

“It was never a nice dinner to begin with, and it’s certainly not one now. Just...I’ll excuse myself, and you can talk to them, okay?” 

 

“Hux, I don’t want to...over wine and pie!” 

 

Hux shrugged his shoulders, then he leaned up and gave Kylo a kiss to the cheek. It was soft, his lips pressing close to him, and Kylo shut his eyes. A moment of peace. Sighing, he nodded his head, then picked up the pie and two of the glasses. Hux followed him with the bottle. 

 

“Here we go, some pie!” he called out, then sat down again. He set everything out, and gave Hux a grateful look when he began pouring wine into the glasses. “I um...I worked hard on this,” he said, a bit ineffectually. “I messed with the recipe a bit, I found it in a book, you know? But I messed with it, tried to make it a touch sweeter.” 

 

“I’m sure it’s delicious,” Leia offered. “Just like dinner.” 

 

Han grunted. 

 

Hux sighed. “You know what, I actually...have to run back to the office.” Kylo shot a panicked look over to the man, who just gave him a shrug. “I forgot some paperwork. I’ll be back.” He turned without another word, and Kylo nearly got up to run after him. It took everything in him to not go chasing after his boyfriend. 

 

“We’ll see some other time, then!” Leia called, and Kylo looked down again when her eyes fell on him. Swallowing, Kylo served out three slices of pie, but he made no move to try and eat his. 

 

They all drank and ate in silence for a few minutes, except Kylo, who merely sipped on his wine. He had the glass gripped tightly enough that he worried he might end up breaking it. That wouldn’t go over well, just make everything worse. Looking at the clock, he felt like the second hand was just ticking around too slowly, as if it was stretching this out for longer than it needed to be. Dinner with his parents was always like this, anytime with his parents was always like this. 

 

“Kylo?” his mother asked, and he looked up curiously. “It’s really good. You did a good job. You...you really, really did.” 

 

He smiled, but he could tell she was just trying to placate him. It didn’t really work. “I always try to impress you.” 

 

Han set the fork back on the empty dessert plate. “You’re definitely a better cook than your mother.” She elbowed him gently, and he flashed her a grin. 

 

“No, I mean...with everything. I always try to impress you. I bought this house to impress you. I got a nine to five job to impress you. I learned to cook, and all this other stuff that I don’t care about, but I’m...I’m doing it all for you.” Kylo’s hands fluttered for a moment, then he wrapped his arms around his middle, trying to calm down. “You never appreciated what I could do, let alone who I actually am. So I tried to change what I am, but I...I can’t do that.” 

 

“Honey, is this your way of telling us that you’re quitting your job?” Leia asked, and he could hear the honest strain in her voice. Like it would be her worst nightmare if he no longer worked in a cramped office cubicle, wearing a tie everyday, and wasting away the years filing other people’s tax returns. 

 

“I quit my job six months ago,” he said, then shrugged his shoulders. “And my life hasn’t come to a screeching halt, the world didn’t come to an end, like you always made me believe it would.” 

 

“So, you’re just freeloading off your boyfriends paycheck?” Han asked, then he snorted. “We raised you better than that.” 

 

“You’re not listening!” Kylo slammed his hands down on the table, anger suddenly flaring through him. He wanted to pull his hair and scream and thrash and make them understand, but he knew they never would. “All you ever wanted was a perfect son, but instead you got me, and you’ve never been able to live with that. I’m not going to be an accountant for the rest of my life, then collect a 401K and die peacefully in some nursing home. You can have that life if you want it, but I don’t!” 

 

“Kylo, calm down-” 

 

“No, Mom, I’ve been calm. I’ve been calm, every single time you come over and you eat our food and make small talk, only to go home and try to forget what a colossal, monumental failure I’ve been.” His eyes filled with tears. “I’m done lying to you. That’s not who I am anymore…” 

 

“What are you going to do then? You’ve got our attention.” She looked at him with worry in her eyes, and Kylo grit his teeth to keep himself from screaming. “If you don’t have a job, then how will you keep paying for this place? What about your future? Marriage? Maybe kids? What are you going to do, Kylo?” 

 

Kylo stood up. He walked away from the table, heels clicking on the wood floors. Grabbing up his books from the bedroom, he brought them out and settled down at the table. Holding the old, leather binding close, Kylo looked over at the bowl in the center of the table. The apples gleamed, fresh and bright, contrasted with the dark tones in the bowl. The symbols inscribed on it caught his eye, and he followed them. 

 

“You may have forgotten who you are, Mom. But I haven’t.” He dropped the book on the table, and without a word, it flew open and the pages turned on their own, until the proper page. He looked down at it, smiling a bit at the incantation before him. “Ne putrescat in nocte pastum reducite. Pascuntur animae lapso tempore ministrat.” 

 

“Kylo!” His flow interrupted, he looked up at his mother, and he saw her flash of anger before he felt the stinging slap across his face. She hadn’t moved, but then again, she didn’t need to. Wincing, he drew his hand up and touched his cheek, bottom lip quivering. “We left the deep magics behind. You know this.” Han merely looked uncomfortable, and his eyes were on the red apples, now beginning to whither and turn brown before their eyes. 

 

“Maybe you don’t, but I do! I’m not going to forget where I came from. Skywalker, Organa, it doesn’t matter. The same magics run through our blood, because they were of the same kind. You want to forget it, but I don’t!” Kylo stood up again, slowly. “Et omnia quae sunt amissa Recordatus est. Tempus adest denuntiat.” The apples browned, shriveling in on themselves, and finally disintegrated as the inscriptions on the sides of the bowl flashed red for a moment. 

 

“You tamper in things you can never fully understand. Most of the old texts are lost to us. I took you away from all of it, so that you could have a normal life, so that we all could. Why do you insist on pulling us back in?” Leia asked, and Kylo merely frowned. 

 

“It’s who I am,” he said. 

 

His mother paused, and her hand braced over her heart for a moment. “Then maybe...maybe you are not my son.” Standing, Leia shoved Han’s hands away when he tried to help her, and she went for the door. His father left as well, without even so much as a goodbye. Kylo stared down into the bowl, where nothing remained. He’d given an offering to the spirits who laid beyond, and he could feel the exchange of power running through him like a million charges of electricity, static. 

 

He slowly sat back down, wired and stiff, but he didn’t move until the front door opened and closed again, nearly half an hour later. Familiar footsteps, then Hux was there, staring at him. 

 

“It didn’t go well?” he asked. 

 

“No.” Kylo slowly looked over, and he heard crackling in his ears, power that he hadn’t yet used. It vibrated inside him, and he expected that he looked quite mad. A pop sounded overhead, and the room was thrown into darkness, a bit of energy making the lightbulb over his head burst. A shower of glass fillment rained on him, but Kylo didn’t move. 

 

“Kylo, Kylo, Kylo…” Hux was at his side, quickly, on his knees, taking his face in hand. “Whatever it was, whatever she said, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’re true to yourself. You’re here. With me. We’re happy!” He kissed him, and Kylo’s lips slowly parted. He fed energy into the tips of his fingers, then curled them against Hux’s cheek. He heard the man’s inward gasp as warmth rushed through him, and finally the energy was expelled, fed into Hux. He looked like he was glowing, cheeks reddened from the contact and eyes alight. 

 

“I love you,” Kylo whispered. 

 

“I love you, too.” Hux’s voice was raw, and he let out a strained laugh. “That’s not a feeling I’m ever going to get used to, I don’t think. What did you do to me, exactly?” 

 

Kylo’s lips quirked in a sad smile. “I made you warm. I imagine you’ll be sleeping on top of the covers tonight.” 

 

“Hah, right…” Hux’s fingers trailed through Kyo’s hair. “Are you okay?” he asked, unsure. 

 

“I will be. Eventually. Help me do the dishes?” 

 

Hux shook his head. “No, you go ahead and get into bed. You look exhausted. I’ll take care of everything.” 

 

Nodding, Kylo stood up and slowly moved toward the bedroom. He felt like he was lumbering, tired, and he only paused when Hux called out his name. 

 

“I know that this isn’t my place, love,” his boyfriend said, catching up to him and holding onto his hips. “But you are beautiful. Powerful. Maybe you don’t need their approval, so stop seeking it out so heartily. If they can’t love and accept you for who you are…” 

 

“Yeah, I get where you’re coming from,” Kylo said, gently placing his hand on Hux’s chest. “But it’s...different for you. Your dad never loved you, my mother always did. It’s...harder.” 

 

“Hmm. Well, just remember, I’ll always be here for you, no matter what.” 

 

Kylo nodded, accepting another kiss, then he went back to the bedroom to sleep. A lovely start to the season of the witches. 


End file.
